Bottle-closing device



(No Model.) L. N. THOMAS.

BOTTLE CLOSING DEVICE.

No. 535,469. Patented Mar. 12, 1895.

UNITED STATES PATENT Fries,

LINCOLN N. THOMAS, on CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR To AUeUsTUs N.

RITZ, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

BOTTLE-CLOSING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 535,469, dated March 12,1895. Application filed October 17, 1894- $erial No. 626,166- (No model.)

To 00% whom it may concern.- I

Be it known that I, LINCOLN N. THOMAS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Closing Devices; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to covers for ink'bottles, and analogous articles, and consists in certain peculiarities of construction and combinations of parts, as will be fully set forth hereinafter and subsequently claimed.

In the drawings, Figures 1 and 2 represent flat sheet-metal blanks from which my said cover is made. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the completed cover in use, applied to a bottle. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a bottle provided with my improved device, partly in section on the line 4et of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5, is a detail sectional view, taken on the line 55 of Fig. 3, but showing the cover disk closed, inboth figures. v

I-Ieretofore sheet-metal covers for ink and other small bottles have been made, to be applied over a short cork, so as to close the bottle when the cork had been drawn, and those in most common use have consisted of a base spun around the upper annular flange of the bottle neck, with the covering disk secured to said base by a vertical pivot pin, so that said disk could be moved horizontally to one side when it was desired to open the bottle. This construction possesses various disadvantages,

which it is the object of my present invention to overcome, the chief objection being the fact that the horizontally moving disk, when open, is often in the way, on a desk or table, by reason of its projection for a very considerable distance beyond the vertical line of the bottle, which is not only inconvenient, in a crowd ed desk, but also frequently the cause of the bottle becoming upset. Besides this, the cost of manufacture of that device is greater (it being a three piece cover) than that of my twopiece cover, and in use the described cover is liable to separation of the parts, which are only held by a short vertical pin.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a piece of flat sheet metal, centrally cut out, as

shown at a, and provided with projecting fingers B, B, of any desired number (four being shown in the present illustrations), said fingers being preferably formed with. concaved ends, as shown at b b. Adjacent to the central opening a, there is formed a short slot 0 for engagement with a tongue (1 on the cover disk C, this base A and disk 0 constituting, when properly put together, the entire device, which is here shown applied to the upper annular flange e of the neck of an ordinary small inkbottle D.

In putting my device together, the tongue cl is inserted through the slot 0 of the part A, from the upper side thereof, and then bent around the narrow portion of metal between said slot and the adjacent opening a, forming a hinge, as shown in Figs. 3 and '5. gers B B are then bent around the bottle neck flange e, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4:, and the device is ready for use, the described concaved ends b of said fingers coming in engagement with the rounded surface of the exterior of the bottle neck, thereby insuring a close fit.

In use, the cover disk 0 can be raised up the I desired height to permit access to the contents of the bottle, without turning the same down upon the base B, buteven if it is turned down, the lineof projection beyond the base will be less than the exterior line of the lower part of the bottle, and hence the objections heretofore noted with respect to the bottle cover now in common use are obviated. By the use of the fingers B B a greater number of the parts A can be cut or stamped from the same quantity of sheet-metal than where the continuous edge of the base piece is secured under a bottle neck flange, this effecting a great saving in cost, and the device being just as securely held, besides which, with my construction, the device can be applied to bottles by either hand or machinery, whereas seaming can only be done by expensive machinery, which renders my invention of especial ad vantage to small manufacturing establishments, and to druggists and others, who may wish to put my devices, from time to time, upon certain of their goods only, and to apply the said covers to various bottles already in their possession.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. As an improved article of manufacture, a bottle closing device, comprising a centrally perforated and slotted base-piece adapted to be secured to a bottle-neck, and a cover-disk provided with an integral tongue secured directly to said base-piece by passing downward thrdugh said slot, and thence up and around the edge of the wall of said central perforation, and forming the hinge of said cover, substantially as set forth.

2. As an improved article of manufacture, a bottle closing device, comprising a base-piece provided with exteriorly projecting fingers adapted to be bent in under the flange of a bottle-neck, and a central perforation and adjacent slot, and a cover disk provided with an integral tongue in hinged engagement with said slot, substantially as set forth.

3. As an improved article of manufacture, a bottle closing device, comprising a base-piece provided with exteriorly projecting fingers concaved at their ends, and adapted to be bent in under the flange of a bottle neck, with the concave ends of said fingers in engagement with said neck, said base-piece having a central perforation and adjacent slot, and a coverdisk provided with an integral tongue passed through said slot and bent under the web of metal between the slot and central perforation, and thence extended up through said perforation and against the under side of said cover disk, thereby forming the hinge of the latter, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand, at Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, in the presence of two witnesses.

LINCOLN N. THOMAS. 

